$2928.70

Interesting in the light of the controversy over the opening of Widener is the appropriation of $2928.70 made by the college during 1932-1933 for the departments of military and naval science. The administration has explained its refusal to keep Widener open in the evenings, not only through the year but also during the reading period, by the budgetary contraction which the present period of reduced income has made necessary. The amount of this appropriation would have sufficed to keep the library open during the midyear and the final reading periods. It has been diverted from the general, unrestricted income. It is not a special grant. Does the college prefer military and naval science to a vital scholastic facility?

The arguments against military and naval science are many and diverse. There are some who oppose them on philosophical grounds, who object to the fact that a jingo spirit is kept in strength and energy by the intrusion of professional soldiers into college classrooms. This view they have supported with great insight and appropriate vigour, but its quarrel with the present is so fundamental that their efforts have not met with much success. There is, however, no necessity to confine the attack on military and naval science to these grounds. Two other arguments have been presented; no answer to either of them has been advanced. Harvard College, as a liberal arts institution, has no place for courses dedicated to routine and not to understanding. Military and naval science are routine courses. Harvard College, as an educational institution, has not the right to encourage any course at the expense of her library, which is the central tool of education. The $2928.70 could have financed the opening of Widener during the reading periods.

The History and Government departments have recommended the opening of Widener at any cost. These departments number among their members many of the men who are essential to the real importance of the University.

There is no executive officer of the University who does not regard the closing of Widener as a temporary measure dictated by the strictest necessity, and during the present reading period economy has been the only answer to a strong and determined agitation. If military and naval science receive a single penny at a time when the college library is crippled for lack of funds, and when students are handicapped in reading period work by its closing, Harvard will have a very embarrassing question to answer.